by Romi Hart
Although I still found Linda beautiful, I had no other feelings for her. And that bothered me to no end. What have I done?
Had I brought home a female who I had no connection with? Had I made her my mate before I should’ve? Were we not meant to be together after all?
I’d told her that I wanted her with me forever, but what if that was no longer true? And why would it be that way?
Looking at my hand, I wondered if the bite from the deer-like creature that she had called a windigo had something to do with my new feelings – or lack thereof.
My dragon had healed the wound, so it made no sense why I would have any residual effects. But I’d never been bitten by such a thing, so I had nothing to compare it to.
“There you go, Linda,” I heard Mako whisper.
Closing my eyes, I found something moving in the air, then the scent of my mate filled my nose. Taking in every bit of it that I could, I felt my heart beat faster and the blood in my veins heated. “Ah, she is my true mate.” Making my way into my bedchamber, I took over the care of my female. “I can see to her from here. Thank you, brother for your help with her.”
“You are most welcome, bother. I shall go to make sure the doors and windows are locked up tight for the night. We don’t want any unwanted guests coming to bother us during our night’s slumber.”
“We most certainly do not.” I closed the door behind him, dropping the thick, wooden board into the iron bar that held it in place to keep the door locked.
As I turned back around, I saw Linda lying on my bed with a sexy smile on her gorgeous face. Wiggling her finger at me, she coaxed me to her. “Come, my fire. Mamma wants to play.”
“Does she now?” I adored that she’d called herself that. Stripping as I made my way to her, I took in another deep breath, taking her into my lungs to hold her there for as long as I could. Before slipping into bed, I rid her of the cumbersome clothes she had on then ran my hands over her naked body. “Does this mean that you’re no longer mad at me for bringing you here?”
Stretching, she put her arms behind her head. “Tieris, this isn’t normal in the least. Something extraordinary is happening here with you and I. There’s a charge in the air. There’s a feeling of great things to come. I have no idea why that is, but I’m done fighting it.”
“You’re inebriated at the moment.” I was positive her tune would change once the liquor wore off. “But I will take this for what it is. You – me, right now.”
I had my agenda to take care of after all. And what a fun agenda it was too. Moving my body over hers, I found her spreading her legs for me. “You want some of this?”
“If you do.” I settled between her legs without penetrating her. “Do you really want this, Linda? Do you want to be my mate and have our offspring?”
“Why do you call babies by that term?” She blew a bit of hair out of her face. “We are going to have babies. And these babies will have names. I expect you to call them by their names and not offspring one, two, three, etcetera.”
“So, that means that you do want to have our babies. But what about being my mate? Do you want to be mates?” The odd times that I lost her scent bothered me. But if I knew that she loved me, then I was sure things would be alright.
The way her eyes glistened as she ran her hands over my cheeks, I knew she cared for me. “Tieris, I’ve never felt about anyone the way I feel about you. I can’t pinpoint what it is exactly, but I know that I miss you when you’re gone. Your smile makes me happy. Your touch drives me crazy with need. This has to be love. So, what do you feel about me?”
I couldn’t tell her how I lost her scent and the attraction it made for me. What I could do was try to find what I felt about her without using the scent to bond us. So, I reached deep, into my heart and pulled out the truths that were buried within it. “Linda, I think you are the most gorgeous and understanding female on Earth. You’re open to things most people wouldn’t be and I love that about you. You don’t bog down in stubbornness and you’re willing to think outside of the box.”
“Yeah, I’m kind of a free spirit.” Her foot ran up the back of my leg. “I kind of feel like I was made for you. You know, like that’s why I never connected with any other man before you came along. I didn’t know it, but I was waiting for you to come find me. And now that you have, well, I’m ready. I’m ready for everything that comes with you, Tieris. Even monsters that lurk around your home.”
Kissing her lips softly, I let her know that this was no longer just my home. “Our home, my sweet.”
“I guess you’re right. Our home.” Her chest heaved as she closed her eyes, breathing me in. “I am home with you. I think I always will be.”
Perhaps I’m evolving into something more than a mere immortal shifter who finds females based on pheromones. Perhaps I have found my forever mate. Love and real feelings have to be what are ruling this relationship. So, I must learn how to deal with that.
“I do love you.” Easing into her, I felt an electric current that moved through us both, bonding us in a way that I’d never bonded with anyone. And the truth was that it was a bit frightening to be bonded to someone in this way.
Without pheromones to lead me, how will I know how to act?
18
Linda
The stone walls made the love we made echo in the large room. Groans, moans, and whimpers made it sound as if we were in a torture chamber – only there was absolutely no torture going on.
I knew we weren’t married and maybe never would be in the traditional way, but we were bonded. I could feel it in his touch and the way he kissed a line up my neck then grazed his teeth back down it. “You taste so good that I know I will never get my fill of you.”
Moving even deeper inside of me, he had me digging my nails into his back. “I don’t think I will get my fill of you either.” A soft moan escaped me as he made a circular motion, sending waves of bliss through my body.
“It’s better that I brought you here. We can spend more time in each other’s arms here than if we were back at that little apartment.” He turned over to lie on his back, holding me tightly to him, not allowing our connection to break. “In the morning, I’ll take you to my shower. It’s like a jungle in there. The water will slick us up so we can slide around on one another. Then we can get into the bath that’s more like a swimming pool. But not such a big one that you’ll be able to get away from me.”
“Like I’m going to want to get away from you.” Sitting up, I gazed down at my man.
My man!
I’d never had my very own man. And here I was with the best-looking man I had ever seen. But my man had some deep secrets that I wanted to get to the bottom of.
How to ask him in a way that would have him actually answering me with the truth rather than changing the subject was a thing I needed to concentrate on.
But how hard he’s making it!
Lifting me up as if I didn’t weigh a thing, he moved me at the speed he wanted – slow and steady. “When I look into your eyes, I see more within them than I’m sure you know is inside of you. I want you to know that what I am with you is so very different from who I have been.”
“Who have you been?” Arching my back, I ran my nails lightly over his chest. “And I’m a different person with you too, my fire.”
Taking my hands, he pulled them to his lips, kissing them lightly. “Before you, I never actually talked to any female. I never got to know any of them. I never cared to keep them around. But you,” sucking on my right middle finger, he made my nipples grow hard as rocks, before he pulled it away from his mouth, “you are a person who I want to keep around. I want to find out new things about you all the time. I’m not infatuated with you. I’m not only thinking about the sex part of things with you.”
I wasn’t sure what he meant. But I thought about how my parents acted after so many years of marriage and it seemed that him thinking of me as more than just a sexual partner was a good thing. But I wanted to be su
re I knew what else he thought about me. “What about being the mother to your children? Is that something that you think about a lot when you think about me?”
Raising his body, he undulated like a wave beneath me as he smiled sleepily at me. “No. It’s rather complex when it comes to you. And the weirdest thing of all is that I don’t think about you all the time. You don’t consume my mind the way the others did.”
“Are these good things?” I had to laugh a little. But the thing was that I understood what he was saying, and I knew that this was what would be considered a mentally healthy relationship. “I’m kidding. It’s actually very healthy to have other thoughts that don’t include your significant other. Plus, you’ve had some issues with the security of your home and the surrounding area. If you were lovestruck and only thinking about having sex with me all the time, then goodness knows what might’ve happened to your home. You might have lost it by now if you had been behaving and thinking like a male animal following the scent of a female in heat.”
“You’re right.” He sat up, pulling my legs until they were on either side of his waist. Lifting my ample body to stroke his hard cock, I held onto his broad shoulders.
How he so easily handled me made me feel more like a sexy woman than I knew was possible for me. “Even though the sex we have is beyond my wildest imagination, I too think of things other than you and doing what we’re doing now. Life is about more than just sex.”
Leaning in, he nibbled my neck as he kept lifting me up and down. “Yes, it is. But sex is important. And it’s incredible with you, my sweet.”
My first instinct was to say something about how he must’ve had better lovers than me in his lifetime. But something told me to not say anything derogatory about myself. Instead, I went in the opposite direction. “Thank you, Tieris. You have the ability to make me feel comfortable, sexy, and uninhibited. Even without any alcohol. I could never be this free if it weren’t for how you treat me and speak to me.”
I could see a lifetime of being with this man. As if we were on our honeymoon in some faraway place where newlyweds set their love in stone, it felt as if we were putting the cornerstones in place so that we could build a sturdy foundation for not only a family but for a relationship that could stand the test of time.
Kissing my shoulder, he ran his fingertips up and down my back, leaving trails of electricity all over my flesh. “You’ve probably noticed that I’m not like other men.”
“I have noticed that. The fact that you healed your hand with only a wet rag wasn’t the first clue to that either.” It seemed like he might be ready to tell me what he and his brother were. I’d seen lots of strange movies and even documentaries. Things were out there that some people didn’t want to believe in. Like the windigo that Tieris had described earlier.
I know there are stranger things out in the universe that not all people get to witness.
Being such an avid reader and working in various bookstores throughout my life, I had been able to read some books that weren’t mainstream. Books that deal with the macabre. Books that had ornate covers and pages which had yellowed with substantial age. Books that told of things that were said to have once roamed the land but had long ago gone the way of the dinosaur.
Tieris hadn’t gone that way. He was still here. And I was sure that he and his brother weren’t actual men in their mid-thirties, the way they looked to be.
Much like any woman who found herself in love with an immortal, I began to think about the fact that if Tieris was what I thought he was, then he would stay the same way forever and I would grow old.
Running his hand up to cup the back of my neck, he looked into my eyes. “Would you like to make a guess at why I am not like most men?”
Nodding, I took into account his amazing good looks. His muscular build was another thing that led me to think in a certain way about him and his brother. They had to be the same kind of thing as they had the same attributes – even if they were at the opposite ends of the spectrum.
Chewing my lip, I began to decipher all I knew about Tieris and his brother, which wasn’t a lot. “So, you and your brother share some basic traits. Height, charm, charisma, inner and outer beauty, and you both speak in a way that’s not of this century.”
Tieris wore a frown. “Are you certain of that, my sweet? My brother and I have watched a lot of television to make sure we speak properly.”
“You’re most likely watching old movies.” I patted his cheek. “It’s part of your charm, so I actually like the way you both talk.”
“Good.” Pulling my hand off his cheek, he moved it to kiss my palm.
The way the act made my inner thighs clench almost made me lose my track of thought. But I wanted to get to the meat of what my man was. “And you make love like a man who has had the time and experience to make him a professional at this sort of thing.”
“A pro, huh?” He chuckled as if the idea was humorous. “I’m not sure if I should be proud or ashamed.”
“I suppose proud is what you should be. There is certainly no reason to be ashamed. It’s just that the time and practice show.” He made a little move that had a part of his body brushing against my clit. Momentarily, I lost my train of thought as a moan escaped my lips. “Oh, how it shows, my Lord above!” Running my arms around his neck, I hugged him tightly as he moved me, keeping up the constant contact with the best part of the female anatomy.
“I suppose I know a thing or two about pleasing females. If you decide to stay with me forever, then you and I will learn everything there is to learn about pleasing each other.” The way he kept moving was about to send me over the edge.
And he wasn’t about to stop as I gripped his back, tensing up as the orgasm began to crest deep inside of my body. A low moan gave way to a high whine that quivered as I fell apart. “Yes! Tieris! You are the fire inside of me!”
His lips grazed over my shoulder as he kept his cool, while I spilled myself all over him. “Give it all to me. I want all that you have and then I want you to make me more.”
Panting like I’d run a mile, I couldn’t believe how hard I had come. “You. Are. A. Sexual. God.” Trying to catch my breath, I ran my hands through his long, silky hair to cool myself down.
The one thing I had learned about the way Tieris made love was that he made me orgasm many times before he finally gave in to his needs and filled me up with his hot seed. And each time his climax had spurred me onto the best orgasm of the night. I had high hopes for the one that would end this session.
Moving me once again, he put me on my back as he laid on one side of me, then moved me to lie on my side. Placing one of my legs on top of his, he spread my legs, then entered me from the side. Moving slowly, he seemed to be interested once again in the topic of what he was – besides human. “So, what have you come up with, my sweet?”
I let my mind go where it wanted as I took into account the attributes of both brothers and what sort of creature they could be. “So, above-average height. And the good looks. Plus, the way you both talk. And then there was the exceptional lovemaking. Oh, and the charisma too.”
His hand moved over my waist, holding me in place as he moved behind me. “And what does all that add up to in your mind?”
“Something that has been around for a very long time.” I felt his teeth moving along my neck and shivered. “Something that has the power to kill others with great ease. But also something that can change a person into the same type of thing that you are.”
The way he stopped, keeping his teeth near where I was pretty sure my jugular vein was, made me a little apprehensive. If he was what I thought he was, then he could bite me and end the human I was. Or even kill me. Which I doubted he really wanted to do since he could’ve already done that if he was just a murderer.
Tieris wasn’t a psychopathic being. He wasn’t a murderer. He wasn’t a beast at all.
Or is he?
He pulled his mouth off my neck to ask, “Would you like to ask me
some questions to help you with the idea you have about me?”
“Sure. How old are you?” I thought that was a smart question.
“Hmm. I don’t know how to answer that.” His hand moved to cup one of my tits. “I’m very old. Ancient, even.”
So I had all I needed to make my assumption. But I was pretty sure I had assumed correctly. In all the books I had read, the one thing that stayed constant was the idea that creatures of the night had existed for eons.
It was even said that bloodsucking creatures were once prevalent in France. Once France had purchased land in America – land that later become known as Louisiana – it was said that they sent the bloodsuckers to the new land.
And these bloodsuckers had a formal name. One I was ready to say to Tieris as his body came up flush behind mine and his hot breath flowed over my neck. “Although you are warm and not cold – although you have a heartbeat – I do believe that you and your brother are.” I hesitated to say the word. I wanted to make sure I said it in the politically correct way. I wasn’t trying to offend the man.
“So, tell me, Linda. What am I?” He kissed my shoulder sweetly. “Go on.”
Closing my eyes, I let the words slip off my tongue, “You are a vampire.”
There. Now to see what he will do to me. Change me. Leave me the mortal that I am. Or the worst thing that he could ever do to me – drain me of my life’s blood.
19
Tieris
A vampire?
“No!” Getting up, my libido had shrunk to the size of a vampire’s and sex was no longer my top priority. “Do I seem that dull? Do I seem that obvious? Do I seem that passé?”
Linda sat up in bed, the sheets pooled as her waist, her tits hung heavy above them and even those luscious goodies couldn’t distract me from the fact that she had thought me to be a drooling vampire. “You’re none of those things, Tieris. I came up with that idea because it seems to me that you have the power to heal very fast. And you and your brother are so charming and seem to be from an earlier time.”
